CORAL GABLES, Florida — Things looked pretty bleak in the first quarter for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore at No. 24 (AP) Miami on Sunday (Dec. 16) afternoon as they fell behind 20-7 by the end of the opening period.

With seven minutes left in the third, The Shore cut the lead to 42-32 before the Hurricanes pulled away again for good and the 71-53 win.

"I'm really encouraged with the way we fought," head coach Fred Batchelor said. "I thought we showed a lot of grit today despite not playing very well to start. We could have mentally had a breakdown, but we fought. I'm encouraged by our attitude, by our spirit, our relentlessness and our resiliency."

The Hawks (2-8) started the contest 1-of-9 from the field and things didn't get much better as the quarter continued. They finished the first 3-of-18 (17 percent) from the field and missed all five 3-pointers they took.

"We just kept telling them that we were getting shots that we wanted, but we just weren't knocking them down," Batchelor said. "At the end of the day, when we felt good about playing is when we were making shots and I think we had seven points in the first quarter. I don't know if that is our lowest quarter in this part of the season, but let's hope that it is. When you do that on a Top 25 opponent's floor it can take a lot out of you."

Batchelor said one of the biggest hurdles for the Hawks in this early season has been focusing on the fact that they are at times getting what they want on offense against top caliber opponents, but not converting shots. That's different than running an all-together ineffective offense.

"I think once they realized that you saw a different spirit," Batchelor said.

Senior Dominique Walker (Bel Air, Maryland) had a big game off the bench with nine rebounds, seven points an assist and a steal in just more than 24 minutes. Much of the second half she played at the four, paired with Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) playing as an undersized five.

"I thought Adrienne Jones (Baltimore, Maryland) came in in the first have and gave us some good minutes," Batchelor said. "She was in during some of that run. Then when we went with the smaller lineup against the bigger team it seemed to work in our favor. The kids came to me the other day and I could sense that they wanted Dom on the floor more and Bairesha wanted to play on the floor with Dom.

"We did it some in practice the other day and I saw that they worked well together. When we were big and they were still capitalizing it made sense to try and match it with athleticism. I thought that was what Dom was able to give up coming off the bench."
The two had a good rapport with Gill-Miles able to find Walker several times during one stretch as she drew defense in the lane.

While Eastern Shore started the game cold form the field Miami didn't have that problem. The disparity in makes contributed greatly to the hole the Hawks were never able to completely dig their way out of.

"In the first half especially, we were defending at a disadvantage because we weren't putting the ball in the basket, so we were in defensive transition eight-out-of-10 times and that hurt us," Batchelor said. "They are deliberate at what they do. They have a great playing in Emese Hof."

Hof — a 6-foot-3 center — was hard on the Hawks throughout the game including a perfect 4-for-4 in the first quarter and 7-for-8 in the first half. She finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, a block and an assist on 9-of-11 shooting.

"She is very tough," Batchelor said. "She has a great feel for the game. She is big as a monster and she's physical and they are kind of bullies in there too. I thought our kids didn't back down from the physicality. I thought they had to overcome a lot of things including a few times when there was a whistle that didn't go our way in critical moments. That can take a lot out of you and I thought we were able to fight through that."

Junior forward Beatrice Mompremier (6-foot-4) teamed with Hof in the post for most of the game and finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds.

But, despite the output by Miami's two towers, The Shore won the rebounding battle 48-47 and turned the ball over 16 times while forcing 17.

"To have 22 offensive rebounds against that lineup and to outrebound them as a whole — even with them shooting 50 percent shows that we did a lot of fighting and battling out there today and that is what I'm proud about," Batchelor said.

Seniors Ciani Byrom (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and Keyera Eaton (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) led the team in scoring with 14 and 15 points respectively. Gill-Miles led the team in rebounding with 12.

After returning to campus, Eastern Shore will travel to Mount St. Mary's on Dec. 20 and then will be off until contests at George Mason (Dec. 28) and University of Maryland Baltimore County (Dec. 31).